


Jealousy

by castronomicaaal



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 08:09:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3167696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castronomicaaal/pseuds/castronomicaaal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rick ponders his own feelings as he watches Beth with Zach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jealousy

**Author's Note:**

> I had an anonymous request on tumblr to write a jealousy fic between these two. I decided to go a little different route than the normal jealous fics, and whoever you are, I hope you enjoy it!

Rick doesn’t like feeling this way.

There’s an intense fluttering within the very pit of his stomach, one that isn’t at all pleasurable in nature. It’s unnerving and unsettling and a big part of himself feels shame for even entertaining these particular feelings to begin with.

He watches Beth from his spot on one of the picnic tables nearby, his lunch in front of him although he doesn’t feel nearly as hungry as he had only moments ago. She’s standing a few yards before him with a friendly smile on her face, talking to one of the newest boys—or rather men, he admits—they’d brought back to join the prison while on a run last week. Rick can’t remember his name, doesn’t really have any interest in recalling it, and sighs gruffly as he looks away and back towards his own food instead.

His beans have probably gone cold by now but he doesn’t mind, picking at his food absentmindedly with his fork in a similar way a brooding teenager might.

It’s because of Lori, really.

Rick doesn’t like thinking about it—remembering Lori and Shane together—and likes even less blaming his troubles on his dead wife. But it’s the truth, plain and simple. After he’d found out about their past together, Rick had done his best to push it aside and continue on with their lives the best they could. But Shane had developed into a constant toxin in his life, spurring him on further and further and slowly began planting the idea within the back of his mind that his wife may not have been as faithful from the beginning as she had initially led on; that perhaps their affair hadn’t actually started just after he’d been pronounced “dead” as Rick had originally been led to believe.

This, in turn, had caused feelings of jealousy to emerge and rear their ugly head.

Shane had been the instigator in planting these fears, but Lori had been the pot and the soil and the water and everything needed to nurture his seeds. It seems as though they may have since grown roots and permanently moved in to a part of Rick’s mind he isn’t too proud of housing.

And now he’s feeling this way about Beth and he undeniably hates it. It’s painful to admit his worries to himself as he watches her speaking with this guy. Mostly because he knows she’s not like Lori, that she would never do anything to cause a rift between them intentionally, but it’s still uncomfortable to think about the possibilities. Besides, she doesn’t even know he’s in love with her and therefore couldn’t possibly be held accountable for making him feel the things he’s currently feeling.

“What’s got you in a mood?”

Rick is pulled from his own thoughts as Maggie takes a seat beside him, throwing one leg over the side of the bench before moving the second to follow after it. She sets her plate down nearby his, nodding in the direction of his uneaten meal.

“You’re hardly one to waste food,” she points out matter-of-factly, smiling softly as he meets her gaze.

He shrugs after, running a hand through his hair. His dark locks are damp with sweat, both the weather and Rick’s previous hours in the field the culprit. “Got a lot on my mind,” he offers eventually.

She nods, seeming to accept this response, and begins to dig into her own food.

“You do know they’re only friends, right?” Maggie asks after a moment, chasing her forkful down with a sip of water.

Rick raises a brow, hoping to play off her words, but she only rolls her eyes in response and shakes her head slowly as he asks, “Who?”

“Good thing you aren’t as bad a leader as you are a liar,” she teases. “Beth and Zach, but you already knew that.” Maggie finds herself chuckling.

“I don’t know why I should be carin’ about your sister’s love life,” he offers noncommittally, turning away from her burning gaze. He’d rather look directly into the rays of the sun for a hundred days in a row than continue staring into Maggie’s eyes right now.

“Maybe because it’s her love life, it’s gotta do with love, and therefore it’s gotta do with you. I see the way you’re always lookin’ at her, Rick.”

She doesn’t beat around the bush, doesn’t attempt to sugar coat it, and decides to just come out and be blunt with her assessment.

Rick blinks rapidly, eyes staring straight ahead with his hand still clutching his fork. He looks thoughtful for a moment, a little nervous too, and eventually coughs a bit uncomfortably before mumbling, “You here to tell me to stay the hell away?”

“I’m here to tell you that if you don’t get your ass movin’ and tell her how you feel, somebody else will. And that’s gonna sting a lot damn more than watchin’ her just flirt with some guy.”

He doesn’t know what to do for a moment after, how exactly to respond, but does take a second to think Maggie’s words over. Rick doesn’t like thinking about Beth being with somebody else, giving herself to anyone but him, but he knows she’s right and that it’s the truth. If he doesn’t pull himself out of this rut real soon and admit to the both of them the things he’s feeling, he may never get the chance.

“How’d you know?” He asks after, finally bulking up the courage to turn and look at her. To his relief she only smiles back at him and doesn’t look disgusted or upset as he had feared.

“You look at Beth just like Glenn looks at me,” she tells him sincerely, both eyes shining. Afterwards Maggie stands, grabbing her empty plate with her left hand and squeezing his shoulder with her right.

“And she looks right back at you the way I look at him.”

Before he has the chance to respond, Maggie has already taken off back for the prison. He sighs deeply, unsure of what to do with himself and this newfound information, and soon finds his eyes focusing back on the twosome near the gate.

He happens to catch Beth’s gaze right as he looks over, both of her big blue eyes suddenly twinkling adoringly as she offers him a quick, bright smile. Rick decides right then and there that jealousy may just be the best thing to have ever happened to him.


End file.
